The national opioid crisis is becoming a political hurdle for Senate Republicans negotiating an -ObamaCare repeal-and-replace bill that could end the healthcare law’s expansion of Medicaid.

Legislation approved by the House would cut off Medicaid expansion in 2020, ending payouts to states and reducing federal funding to the program by about $880 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Of opioid addicts in her state, Capito says: “Without that expanded Medicaid, they wouldn’t be getting treatment.

“They would be without any kind of coverage in that area, so it’s exceedingly important to kicking this thing, pardon the pun, to make sure that those folks have access and coverage,” she told The Hill.

Republicans in the Senate are divided over how to handle Medicaid as part of their healthcare legislation.

While the issue wasn’t a priority in the House, it is sure to be divisive in the upper chamber.

Republicans representing states that did not expand Medicaid are keen to roll back the expansion, while those representing states that accepted it are split. Some want to preserve the expansion in some form, and GOP governors who expanded the program don’t want to see health coverage taken away from thousands of their constituents.

Portman said he’s been working with Capito on the issue, and senators from states that expanded Medicaid have been holding meetings since February.

Possible solutions, according to Portman, include creating a smoother transition to ending the expansion, as opposed to the House bill’s deadline of 2020. Financial assistance — in the form of tax credits — could be increased to better help those coming off the Medicaid rolls afford health insurance in the private market.

Additionally, new money could be targeted toward states with the worst opioid addiction rates to help fund treatment facilities, services and prevention efforts, according to Capito.

¨We’re just trying to be sure, at a time when we’re facing this crisis, that we don’t make things worse,” said Portman, who highlighted the issue in his reelection campaign and is the -co-author of the bipartisan Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act signed into law last year.

This effort came as the rate of deaths from opioid overdoses has quadrupled since 1999.

Advocates are concerned.

“Low-income, childless adults who are living with addiction are among the people hardest hit by the epidemic,” said Rebecca Farley, vice president for policy and advocacy at the National Council for Behavioral Health. “These are people who wouldn’t qualify for Medicaid otherwise. … This is, in many ways, an overlooked ripple effect of the cuts that are being proposed in this bill.”